Deja Vu
by purewriting
Summary: Danny has a creeping sense that something isn't right. A new student arrives at Casper High at the same time as a new, murderous ghost. Or is it really a ghost? *Two Shot*


**A/N: Undertale/DP crossover (obviously). I decided to go a bit of a different way with this than a typical crossover (hopefully I don't screw up). Just to warn you all, it might get dark.**

 **Enjoy**

…

 _BEEP! BEEP! BE-THWACK_!

The irritating drone of the alarmclock was silenced by Danny's fist coming down on the snooze button. Tired blue eyes peeked from under the bedsheets and stared drowsily at the bright red numbers displayed on the digital clock. 6:45am. A small groan escaped him and he let his head drop back to the pillow.

 _Do I have to get up today?_ He groaned internally, _Maybe I can fake being sick so I can avoid that test...wait a minute._

A feeling of deja vu settled in Danny's chest for a moment, but quickly passed. He's been contemplating faking sickness for the past week and a half. Recent ghost activity has made keeping up with school work harder than usual and Danny was falling behind.

Begrudgingly, he decided to just face the consequences and go to school. Getting ready was systematic and he didn't really need to think about it. He'd done it so many times that he didn't have to. He just did it. Soon enough he was trudging out the door with breakfast and dread sitting in his stomach.

…

School looked much the same as usual. Same teens procrastinating entering the facility in a vain attempt to forget that they actually have to do work, same bullies picking on the nerds and band kids, same everything really. Even Sam and Tucker were standing in the same spot at the base of the school steps waiting for him as usual.

Danny had taken his time getting to school today. He forwent flying or taking the bus and instead took a stroll to his doom. It took longer, but honestly the halfa didn't feel up to facing Mr. Lancer today.

"Hey Danny. Didn't take the aerial route today?" Tucker asked, looking up from his PDA.

"Nah." he sighed, adjusting his backpack so the straps didn't dig into his shoulders as much, "Decided to take it slow today. Besides, I don't need my parents shooting at me this early in the week."

"That's been happening a lot lately, huh?" Sam added.

The trio headed up the steps into the building, but still maintained their conversation.

"Ever since they installed that new ghost sensor, I can't go ghost within a fifty foot radius of the house without them knowing." Danny sighed, "And it's been going off pretty frequently too but my parents haven't found any ghosts around."

"Weird. Maybe it's just oversensitive?" Tucker suggested.

Danny shrugged. "Maybe. It _is_ one of my parent's inventions."

As they were walking down the hall, a passerby knocked into Danny, scattering their books and papers all over the floor. A small shout of surprise escaped them as they shot down to gather the things up before they got trampled.

"Oh, sorry." Danny apologized, bending down to help.

"It's fine. I wasn't paying attention." the other person answered in a quiet voice.

Danny couldn't help glancing up at them as he picked up the papers. He couldn't see much of their face because their thick brown hair was covering their face, but something about this person set him on edge.

His attention snapped back to the ground when he felt his hand touch something else. It was ice cold. So cold that it shot pricks of pain up his hand. He recoiled and to his surprise, the other person did too. They hissed under their breath and tugged the sleeve of their green and yellow striped sweater over their hand for a brief moment before they took the remaining papers from Danny, muttered a curt thanks and left.

Danny stood and watched them go. His other hand gravitated towards the place where he assumed their skin had touched. It still was tingling, like there was some sort of energy lingering on his skin.

"What was that?" Sam asked, eyeing the stranger with heavy suspicion in her violet eyes, "They recoiled like you stung them. Who was that anyway?"

"Uh, I think that was the exchange student. Uh...Chara, I think their name is. Their from up somewhere up north." Tucker explained.

Sam looked at the techno geek with arched eyebrows. "And you know this because?"

Tucker shrugged. "I may have hacked the school's system last night to get a peek at today's test and stumbled across the info. Weird how they decided to come in the middle of the second semester."

"I don't know about them." Danny admitted out loud, "Something's off."

Sam nodded. "Agreed."

"Well, let's not linger on it or we'll be late for class." Tucker said, "And one more tardy earns us all detention."

…

" _It's pretty quiet tonight"_ Sam noted over the Fenton Phones.

"Yeah." Danny replied from the air, "We haven't even seen the Box Ghost or Skulker around lately."

" _Well it_ is _getting close to Christmas and the ghosts all have that truce they do._ " Tucker supplied, " _Maybe the lack of activity has something to do with it?"_

"Maybe, but-"

Danny was cut off by a familiar chill crawling up his spine that was quickly followed by a small puff of mist that whisped from his mouth. The halfa glanced below him and a moment later spotted a bright glow in one of the allies below him.

"Looks like we spoke too soon." Danny said, "There's a ghost in the alley on the corner of Capitol Lane and Ebott Street."

" _Can you tell who it is?_ " Sam asked.

"Not yet, but I'm gonna take care of them."

Flying down into the alley, the hybrid was able to identify who the ghost was. To his surprise, it was Johnny 13. His motorcycle was abandoned at the mouth of the alley and he was facing down someone else, Danny couldn't quite tell who, and looked like he was ready to fight. Strangely, Kitty and his Shadow were nowhere to be found.

"Hey Johnny! Didn't you learn not to come here from our last fight?"

Johnny's head snapped in Danny's direction and he was almost positive that Johnny looked terrified, but that observation was quickly dismissed when a shrill cry came from the end of the alley.

"Ghost! Help!" a younger voice exclaimed.

Danny almost had forgotten about the second person in the alley he had spotted from the air. To his surprise, it was the exchange student, Chara. They were huddled in the back of the alley, arms curled tightly around their torso, gripping the thick fabric of their sweater and brown eyes wide with fear.

"Picking on humans again Johnny?" Danny asked, a deep scowl settling on his face as his attention returned to the biker ghost.

Johnny spun to face him, kicking up some dust as he went and putting his hands up in defense. "Whoa dude! Y-You've got the wrong idea!"

An ectoblast was his answer. Danny never had quite forgiven Johnny for what he tried to do to Jazz, so needless to say he held a bit of a grudge and wasn't likely to listen to him. Though he did find it odd how Johnny was defeated rather quickly. The blast knocked him into a stack of trashcans and he didn't try to escape or fight back.

Danny was able to suck him into the Thermos with no trouble. That sense of deja vu he felt that morning returned for a moment before ebbing again.

"Wow!" Chara said, once again reminding Danny of their presence, "Thanks mister...um. Phantom, right?"

Danny shifted uneasily. "Uh. Yeah? No problem. Johnny usually likes to cause problems for humans, so, sorry for the trouble."

 _Weird how they're not screaming at me in terror._ Danny thought.

"I'm just glad that he's gone." Chara replied with a strange grin on their face, "I should be going home now, thanks again. Mister Phantom."

With that, they left. Danny watched them, miffed, as they jogged down the street and disappeared around the corner. Not long after, Sam and Tucker arrived on their scooters.

"Where's the ghost?" Sam asked, reaching for her ecto-weapon.

"All taken care of. It was just Johnny."

Tucker blinked in surprise. "Wow. You took him out that fast? He usually gives you a good run around before you catch him."

Danny's eyes rolled at the jab. "Yeah, well. Maybe I'm finally getting better at this."

"Well, let's go home. It's getting late and I doubt there'll be anything else tonight." Sam said.

The halfa stifled a yawn and nodded. He started to lift off the ground again when Sam said something else.

"By the way, who was that running around the corner?" the goth asked.

"Hmm? Oh, Johnny was harassing Chara. They were just leaving."

A thoughtful scowl set on Sam's face before she started towards home, sending a well-wish over her shoulder as she disappeared. Danny couldn't help but look back at the direction Chara went. It was strange, but Danny felt like something was seriously wrong here. He couldn't place it, but there was a sense of dread building in his stomach.

…

" _Hehehehehehehehe. Oh_ _ **Mister Phantom**_ _~ Where'd you go?" a chilling voice called over the distant drone of an alarm, drawing out the syllables of 'phantom' in childish mockery, "You're not hiding, are you?"_

 _Danny felt the breath catch in his throat. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face as footsteps echoed off the high ceilings of the lab and even with the Ghost Portal open and shining its haunting green light into the space, Danny still couldn't make out who was down there. Only a dark shape. But he had a sneaking suspicion he didn't want to know who it was. He was crouching behind one of the desks in his human form. A deep exhaustion echoed through his body, reminding him of a fight he must have had before this moment. What was it? Who had he been fighting? He couldn't quite remember._

" _You can't hide forever Mister Phantom. I_ _ **will**_ _win this little game of hide-and-seek of ours~." the voice called again, bringing him back to his present situation._

 _A shiver crawled down his spine. Danny needed to get out of here now. As quietly as he could, he tiptoed towards the stairway. A lone and flickering bulb at the top of the stairs served as his lighthouse and guided him towards his only hope at escape._

 _However, the scuttling of metal on metal shattered that hopes like dust in the wind. A red glow illuminated the space from behind him as the halfa froze in his tracks. Instinctually, he dove for the floor, narrowly missing an attack that buzzed of his head. A red crescent of energy flew over Danny's head and hit the wall in front of him, leaving a deep cut in the metal plated walls before fading and plunging the room into relative darkness again. He hit the metal floor hard, but quickly got up again, ignoring any pain and bolted for the exit. Fear screamed from every molecule in his body. He couldn't face this….demon in the darkness. He_ _ **couldn't win**_ _. Another red glow lit up the space from behind him, completely overtaking the green of the portal. He lurched right. The red crescent whistled by, crackling with powerful energy and missing him by a hair's width. Another deep groove in the wall._

" _HAHAHAHHAHAHA! I'll just keep attacking you know! You can't dodge forever~!"_

 _Another attack came his way. Danny moved to step left this time, but before he realized it a horrible pain tore through his back like white hot electricity. Only ten times worse. The breath was stolen from his lungs as his legs gave out from under him and Danny crumpled to the floor like a marionette whose strings have been cut._

 _A childish but dark laugh filled the room once more as someone approached him from behind. Danny tried to muster the strength to attack, but he just...couldn't. He actually was starting to lose feeling in his arms and legs. With what little strength he had, he glanced at his arms._

 _They were….dissolving into a fine, glowing dust._

 _He screamed. He cried for help. But nobody came._

" _Hehehehe. Since when were_ _ **you**_ _the one in control?"_

…

Danny bolted upright in bed, covers flying as his bedroom door was kicked open. The colors green and red glared at him from the darkness. Lingering fear prompted Danny to spring out of bed to the far side of his room.

"Danny, sweetie! We heard you scream!" his mom's voice called.

"Where's the ghost? I'll blast that ecto-slime ball to dust if it so much as laid a tentacle on my boy!" his dad agreed, his voice filled with determination as his footsteps thundered into Danny's dark room.

The lights were turned on and Danny's the fear subsided as he realized that it was only his parents, donning their red tinted ghost hunting goggles and armed with ecto bazookas. They had come armed to the teeth believing there was a ghost in his room. Did he scream when he woke up? He didn't remember that.

"Sorry. Just a nightmare. No ghost." he explained, trying hard to keep his voice steady.

His dad still stalked around his room, peaking in his closet and under his bed like he thought the ghost was hiding from them before powering down his weapon.

"Guess you're right Danny-boy. The new alarm would have gone off if any spooks got in our house." he mused.

"Sorry Danny, we just jumped to conclusions." mom said, pulling her hood down and setting aside her weapon, "You said you had a nightmare?"

The halfa sighed heavily and nodded. "Yeah, but I really don't want to talk about it right now."

Both his parents paused in silence for a moment before nodding and telling him to get some sleep, hopefully nightmare free this time. And Danny complyed by getting back into bed as they turned the lights back off.

But he didn't go back to sleep. Instead, Danny simply laid on his back and stared up at the ceiling. He was tired, but he was too scared to go back to sleep. The mortal fear he felt lingered like heavy fog and he couldn't understand why he couldn't stop shaking. It was just a bad dream.

So why did it not feel like it was?

…

The next morning Danny was more ghostly than usual. He didn't sleep the rest of the night. He was simply too scared and any time he tried to fall back asleep that laugh would echo through his ears again. Or their words. Or he'd feel like his arms were turning to dust. So he didn't sleep.

He was regretting it a little as he was having a hard time staying awake in Lancer's class.

"Alright class. You'll be working on a project in partners for a presentation on our short story. You all will have two weeks to complete it and we will assign the order in which you present next Tuesday." Mr. Lancer announced.

A murmur of excitement rippled through the class.

"Don't get too excited." Mr. Lancer said, "I've already assigned your partners."

A mass groan.

As Mr. Lancer started rambling off names, Danny started to zone out. That is until his name was called.

"Danny Fenton, you will be working with Chara Messor."

A small laugh came from behind him. "Looks like we're partners, uh, Danny was it?"

Danny glanced over his shoulder. Chara was sitting in the desk directly behind him, hands folded neatly on the desktop, smiling sweetly at him.

"Uh. Yeah, I guess so." Danny said.

Inside he was panicking a little bit because he totally forgot about the reading they were supposed to do last night. He had intended to do it after patrol, but he never got around to it.

"We can meet at my house if you like." Chara suggested, "It's nothing much, but it's a quiet space so we could get our work done."

Danny immediately thought about the almost assured chaos that would exist in his house and wordlessly agreed.

"Yeah sure. What's your address?"

…

Danny was starting to get concerned. It's been five whole days since he's seen any ghosts. Usually there's at least the Box Ghost to deal with, but even the cardboard crazy spector was MIA. At first, it was nice because Danny could focus on his school work for once, but after the first three days he started to get weary. The ghosts aren't usually this quiet for this long.

Once again, deja vu nagged at him from the back of his mind. Danny couldn't deny that this all felt so so familiar, but he couldn't grasp any memory that resembled this situation. He had decided to patrol solo tonight. Tucker and Sam had gotten sick, so he didn't want to push them. Their sudden illness concerned Danny enormously, but he forced himself to focus on the task at hand.

Much to his surprise, his Ghost Sense went off. Soon after, the shrill cry of a ghost filled the air as two glowing shapes darted a few yards off. Hot on their tail was Valerie on her Jet Sled. A small smile crossed his face. It'd been awhile since Danny had seen Valerie as the Red Huntress and though she had a tendency to shoot at him, seeing her was always a strangely welcome sight.

He was about to follow her when his Ghost Sense went off again. By then, Valerie had flown past him, her sights set firmly on the two ghosts she pursued, but Danny saw something following her. It was fast and leaping from rooftop to rooftop, but gaining fast on Valerie. Danny couldn't make out who or what it was, but he saw an eerily familiar glow of red amid the blur of green and brown.

Recognition struck Danny like a bolt of lightning and before he was even aware of what he was doing, he was rocketing towards Valerie at max speed.

"VALERIE! LOOK OUT!" he bellowed.

She glanced at him and was likely about to make some snarky remark about him until he tackled her mid-air off her jet sled. Wind rushed upwards past the back of his foot as he did and he and Valerie hit the next roof over. Danny immediately got up and started scanning for the shape he had seen.

"What's your deal Ghost?" Valerie exclaimed angrily.

"I saw something tailing you." he explained, not looking back at her, "I don't know what it was, but-"

The hum of an ecto-gun powering up cut him off. Valerie was pointing the barrel of her weapon at his back. He could feel its presence lingering inches from the center of his back.

"Since you costed me my initial targets, I'll just take you out instead."

Geez, he could almost _hear_ the smirk on her face. An annoyed sigh escaped him as he muttered an 'of course' under his breath. However, movement out of the corner of his eye captured his attention and it was coming on fast.

"Valeri-!"

The blast of Valerie's weapon threw Danny off the roof. He tumbled across the road until his back slammed into the gutter on the other side. The force of the blow shocked him briefly, but he was on his feet in time to see a streak of red bolt past Valerie. Even from the distance Danny was at, he could see the pain and surprise on her face as her red suit was slowly stained a darker hue of the previously mentioned color in the shape of a crescent stretching from her right shoulder to her left hip.

Danny watched in horror, completely frozen to the spot as Valerie dropped to her knees, the ecto weapon slipping from her limp fingers as she fell off the roof. He was finally able to spring into action and Danny managed to catch the injured ghost huntress before she hit the ground, but he was forced to phase through several buildings as his momentum was too great to stop quickly.

When he did finally stop, he was back on the street on his knees with Valerie cradled in his arms. There was a dark red stain on his own suit where he had made contact with her wound and her blood was running over onto his hands, staining the pure white of his gloves a deep crimson.

"P-Phan...tom?" she asked, her voice a broken whisper.

The shock in her eyes was absolutely heartbreaking to Danny. So much so, that he struggled to make his voice work.

"I'm here. I'm here Valerie. I'm here." he chocked out, "You're going to be okay. I'll get you to a hospital, just hang o-."

Before he could finish his sentence, Valerie's form completely collapsed in on itself. She slipped right through his arms, scattering over his legs and the ground in the form of very fine dust. Danny stared in silence for a moment, not believing what he had just witnessed. Valerie. A human. Just _turned to dust_. And not just any dust.

Memories of the dream that haunted him flashed in his mind. He had turned to dust there too after he got hit by a red streak exactly like the one that had hit Valerie.

Danny's blood ran cold as a childish but dark laugh echoed through the empty streets. The halfa shot to his feet, fists balled into tight fists out of both rage and fear. His eyes scanned the area for the _thing_ responsible for Valerie's death. And silhouetted on the roof of a building across the street was a figure. He couldn't make out much other than a short stature, a pair of glowing red eyes staring back at him and what looked like a knife in their hand that reflected a red light back at him.

"Who are you?! WHY DID YOU DO THIS!?" the halfa bellowed out of anger and out of grief.

The figure laughed at him again. "I'm the demon that comes when you call its name. It doesn't matter when. It doesn't matter where. Time after time I will appear. To eradicate the enemy. To erase this petty existence."

"You didn't answer my question." Danny said, "Who are you and why did you kill Valerie?"

A ray of green ecto energy fired from Danny's hand at the figure on the roof. But in one swift swing of their knife, it was simply deflected.

"Hehehehe. I would love to fight you here and now, but I have other work to do. Another day perhaps?"

Then they disappeared. Like dust in the wind.

…

It's been three days since Valerie was killed and the situation only has gotten worse. People were disappearing all across town and only a pile of fine dust was the only evidence that they were ever there to begin with. There had been a funeral for Valerie, but there wasn't much to bury. Just a handful of dust was all that was left of her. The rest had been blown away.

Danny hasn't slept properly since that night. He couldn't sleep. Every night he snuck out of the house, though it was harder than usual because his parents set up every possible defense in order to protect against this ghost murderer, but he would somehow. And he would search the city for them.

And search.

And search.

And search.

Until the sun came up.

But he never found anything.

No ghosts have been spotted since that night with the exception of Danny.

It was like they were scared too.

People didn't leave their homes anymore.

They locked their doors.

They clung to each other.

They feared for their lives.

They feared for the lives of those they loved.

School hasn't been cancelled though.

But the students are required to stay in groups and within the limits of the school grounds.

No one argues.

Sam and Tucker haven't gotten better.

In fact they've only gotten worse.

They're both nauseous and suffering from severe stomach cramps, fever, and convulsions.

No one knows exactly what's wrong.

The doctor's think it's a poisoning of some kind.

But they don't know which one yet.

Neither has been to school in a week.

At least their at home and out of harm's way.

Danny's still working on his English project with Chara.

Though he has trouble concentrating.

Chara's pretty patient with him though.

That moment when Valerie turned to dust keeps playing over and over in his mind.

The feeling of her dust spilling through his fingers and gathering around his legs lingered even though days have passed.

Chara's place is nice though.

Nothing special.

But there's a nice pot of buttercups in the windowsill that really brighten the place up.

The person themself is….off putting.

They don't seem terribly concerned given the situation.

Even though what people assume is a ghost is murdering people all over town and Chara's home has no ghost defenses to speak of.

Danny brought this up to his parents one night.

They insist that he invite Chara to stay with them until this demon is dealt with.

"Hey Chara." Danny said, not looking up from his work, "My parents think it might be a good idea for you to stay with us until this whole thing blows over."

Chara looked up from their work, surprise flickering in their round brown for a moment. "Really? Why's that?"

Danny shrugged. "Well, you don't really have any defenses and this….thing is murdering people. They don't think it's worth the risk, and frankly, I agree."

 _I don't want anyone else I know to turn to dust_. He added to himself.

Chara paused for a moment and put their pencil down. They got up and walked over to the potted buttercup and started stroking its silky yellow petals, seemingly lost in thought.

"I'd love to Danny, but someone has to take care of these flowers."

"You can just bring them with you if you care about them so much." he said, half muttering it to himself.

They stopped admiring their plant and stared out the window, drumming their fingers on the windowsill.

 _Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap._

Over and over.

Then they stopped for a moment.

Once that moment passed, Chara turned back to Danny.

"Alright then." they said, "If you insist. I'll go and...pack my things."

Strangely, when Chara and Danny left, Chara didn't bring their buttercups with them.

…

A sense of fresh foreboding mingled with the stale deja vu in Danny's stomach as he and Chara walked down the street towards Fenton Works. It was getting dark. Street lamps were flickering on as the sky was colored shades of peach, pink, orange, and purple. Chara stopped for a moment and looked up at the sky with a vacant expression.

"The sunset is beautiful." they commented, somewhat distantly, "That's one thing I like about this place. We don't get beautiful sunsets like this where I'm from."

Danny stopped too. "Where _are_ you from by the way?"

A strange emotion flickered on Chara's face, then was gone.

They shook their head. "Nowhere you'd know."

Danny hummed and started walking again, but still keeping a vigilant watch over the rooftops and alleys. He felt vulnerable for some reason. And that deja vu was nagging at him again. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he felt that he had done all of this before. The project, the conversation with Chara, this walk. It had a...a staleness to it, if that makes any sense. Like he had gone through these same events more times than he could remember. Or wanted to.

The halfa was brought out of his dazed musings when he spotted a familiar house out of the corner of his eye. It was Sam's house. It occurred to him that he hadn't visited Sam and Tucker recently. He'd been so busy looking for that unnamed demon. Tucker had been staying over at Sam's house since he and Sam apparently were suffering from the same illness. Danny guessed it was just more convenient for the doctors.

"Hey, is it alright if we stop by and visit Sam and Tucker real quick?" Danny asked.

A bright smile lit up Chara's face. "Sure. I haven't seen either of them since last week. It would be nice to see them."

They both crossed the street without looking. Not that they needed to. No one would be out driving this late. Danny knocked on the large white door. It was hesitantly opened seconds later. The door opened a crack, stopped for a moment, then opened completely. Behind it was Mr. Manson. He was a man that almost always had a bright smile on his face, much to Sam's displeasure. But he looked like he hasn't smiled in days. Rather, he looked like every bit of joy had been drained out of him and he was just a husk of his former self. It was a disturbing sight.

"Hello Danny. Are you here to visit Sam and Tucker?" he asked, almost monotone.

Danny nodded. "How are they?"

He sighed, shoulders slumping. "Not much better I'm afraid. The doctor's can't seem to figure out what poison they're affected with. Neither of them have any life-threatening food allergies, or have been bitten by anything poisonous, or have come into contact with _anything_ that could inflict this kind of illness. I'm just...just so worried I'm going to lose my baby girl."

At this point, Mr. Manson was on the verge of tears, but he quickly composed himself and forced a smile on his face which for once looked terribly unnatural.

"But I guess all we can do now is hold on to hope. That's just life, isn't it?" he said, "Anyway, come on in Danny and...um. What's your name?"

This question was directed at Chara, who had been quietly listening this whole time. But when they were addressed, a polite, but strangely...cold smile spread on their face to show off their rosy pink cheeks.

"Chara, sir. I'm an exchange student at Casper High." they said, extending their hand.

"Oh. What a nice name. It's nice to meet you Chara." Mr. Manson said, shaking their hand.

He moved to let the two of them through the door. "Please come in you two. I'm sure Sam and Tucker would be...glad to see you both."

Danny thanked him before walking up the stairs to Sam's room, Chara following behind for a bit.

"Um Mr. Manson?" Chara asked, "Would it be too much trouble if you could point me to a washroom?"

"Right this way." Mr. Manson said, motioning for Chara to follow.

Chara and Mr. Manson disappeared down one of the adjoining hallways, leaving Danny to trek up to Sam's room by himself. Once he was standing before her closed door, he felt himself hesitate. He felt like he needed to be somewhere else. He felt like he was _needed_ somewhere else. Desperately so. It was strange. His head turned back to the stairs. There was an eerie silence downstairs. Perhaps Mrs. Manson and Grandma Manson were reading in the living room or something?

Danny held fast to that hopeful thought and he resumed his former action and knocked on Sam's door.

"Sam? Tucker? It's me, Danny." he asked.

Heavy silence answered him.

 _Maybe they're sleeping?_

Slowly, he turned the doorknob. It turned easily under his hand and the door opened. The room beyond it was dark. Well, darker than usual. The curtains were tightly shut, no lights illuminated the large space save for the light flowing in from the door Danny just opened. A second bed was set up against the wall parallel to Sam's bed. There were lumpy shapes in both, but neither stirred.

"Sam? Tucker?" Danny called again, entering the room.

This time, the lumps stirred and with heavy, pained groans from both, the shapes of his friends sat up. Danny felt his throat tighten. Both Tucker and Sam were so terribly pale. Their faces were flushed an unhealthy shade of red, sweat dotted their foreheads, and every move they made seemed to cause them pain.

"Danny?" Sam croaked, "Is that you?"

"Yeah. It's me. Sorry I haven't been around lately." he said softly.

A dry, sarcastic laugh came from Tucker. "Yeah man. Some best friend you are."

Danny laughed back in response, then the room settled into uneasy silence. He wasn't sure what to say. What _could_ he say? 'How do you feel'? Ha. It was obvious how they felt. Danny could plainly see they were in pain and he hated it. He was powerless to do anything but watch them suffer from an unknown illness.

"Don't look so sad Danny." Tucker said, a slight scolding in his voice, "We'll be fine."

"Probably just ate some bad food." Sam added, "Like those cookies that Chara shared with us last week. They didn't seem...to agree with us."

Danny's eyes widened. "Wait. The cookies."

...

" _Here guys." Chara beamed, extending a tupper box of meticulously made cookies, "Have some. I brought too many for myself."_

" _Alright! Free cookies!" Tucker exclaimed excitedly, eagerly snatching a handful of cookies from the box, "You're the best Chara!"_

 _Sam took one too, though more politely than Tucker. "Yeah. Thanks Chara."_

" _Don't you want one too Danny?" Chara asked, extending the box to him._

 _He shook his head. "No thanks, I'm already full."_

 _Disappointment crossed Chara's face before they smiled and put the box away._

 _..._

Realization crossed Sam's face. "You don't think...you don't think _Chara_ had something to do with this, do you?"

"Chara gave you those cookies the day before you both got sick." Danny mused, "And I didn't have one and I didn't get sick."

"That doesn't really explain why we got like this though dude. You don't get like this over a bad cookie, trust me." Tucker pointed out.

Danny thought back to when he had been in Chara's home. Was there anything that could have been poisonous?

...

" _I'd love to, but someone has to take care of these flowers."_

…

" _Wow. These flowers are pretty." Danny said, admiring the bright yellow blossoms of the flowers on Chara's kitchen windowsill._

" _Thanks." Chara said, pride glowing on their face, "They're my favorite flower. Buttercups."_

…

" _Whatcha drawing Chara?" Tucker asked, trying to peek over the exchange student's shoulder._

 _Chara had been absently doodling in their open notebook during class and even though the bell had rung, they still scratched on the pages with their pencil._

 _A small, embarrassed laugh came from them. "Just doodling a flower. I do that when I get bored."_

 _Sam peered over at Chara's paper. "Those look like buttercups."_

" _Do they?" they asked, "That's funny! Buttercups are my favorite flower."_

 _Sam rose an eyebrow at them. "Really? Buttercups are highly poisonous to humans. Even fatal if left untreated."_

 _They shrugged. "I know, but they're really pretty."_

...

"Chara has a pot of buttercups on their kitchen windowsill." Danny said outloud.

Sam's eyes widened. "Did you say 'buttercups'?"

"What about buttercups? Those are weeds, right?" Tucker asked.

The goth shook her head, horror in her eyes. "Buttercups are extremely poisonous to humans. Ingesting them can cause nausea, fever, convulsions, and damage internal organs."

"In other words, cause what you're having." Danny said.

Disbelief and rage fluttered in Danny's chest. He couldn't believe that Chara likely poisoned his two best friends. It had to be an accident, right? They wouldn't hurt someone on purpose, would they? Thought the more he tried to convince himself that Chara was innocent, the less he believed himself. There was just a bleak acceptance inside of him. Like he knew that Chara was responsible and had accepted that long ago.

However, before anything more could be said on the matter, a chill ran up Danny's spine that was followed by an exhaled puff of mist. His Ghost Sense. Danny transformed on the spot just as he heard the roar of ecto jet engines. Wind whistled through the room, scattering loose papers and photos around the room as what looked to Danny like Skulker dove intangibly through the ceiling and into the level below.

He quickly followed Skulker through the floor, though added invisibility to his intangibility in hopes to delay Skulker detecting him. Danny found it odd that Skulker was here. No ghost has been sighted since Valerie was killed. So why was he here? And most importantly, what was he up to?

A familiar laugh echoed emptily through the halls. Danny felt his blood run cold. He knew that laugh, but he wished he could forget it. It was the demon that killed Valerie. Danny followed the sound of ecto weapon fire into the living room. Furniture had been demolished by the fight and stray fire left scorch marks on the walls and punctured paintings hanging on the walls.

Then there was the fine dust scattered across the living room floor and the abandoned motor scooter in the far corner, also covered in the horrid substance. And standing in the middle of it all with a knife in hand and eyes illuminated with an unfriendly red glow and an unnatural smile on their face….was Chara.

"Hehehehehe. Funny. I thought I already killed all the ghosts. How come you're not dust yet?" they asked innocently.

Skulker fired at them, but they dodged it almost effortlessly. Splintered wood was scattered everywhere.

"You'll have to try harder than that to get rid of me, brat." Skulker declared.

"Ooohhh~ A challenge." Chara cooed.

In a flash, they weren't standing in the center of the room anymore, instead they were behind Skulker, knife encased in an eerie red glow.

"I like a challenge."

They swung their knife and a red crescent of energy rolled off the blade's edge at Skulker. The hunter ghost dodged the attack, but only narrowly. The attack sailed past him and cut a deep mark across the fireplace.

"Too bad you aren't much of one." they mocked.

The two continued to exchange blows like this while Danny was trying to process what was going on.

Chara was the demon that had not only haunted his nightmares, but had murdered Valerie right in front of him. Not to mention countless others and the Mansons just now. It didn't make sense, but at the same time it did. Danny couldn't help but let instances of Chara coming at him with that knife poised to strike a death blow on him. But they didn't seem like mere images of his mind's making. They felt like actual memories. What was going on?

"You'll have to try harder than that to get rid of me, brat." Skulker declared.

"Ooohhh~ A challenge." Chara cooed, a wide grin on their face.

 _Wait, didn't this already happen?_ Danny thought.

Chara appeared behind Skulker. Danny glanced at the fireplace. There was no deep groove carved into its stone surface. Until seconds later. The impact generated a sizeable cloud of stone dust, but as it settled, it seemed to cling to a vaguely human shape.

Out of curiousity, Danny floated closer to it. But a red crescent of energy hurtling past his face stopped him short.

"Hello there _**Mister Phantom**_. It's so good to see you again. No need to be shy. _**You can play too**_."

Danny let his invisibility drop and with it, his composure mostly went too. He was enraged.

"What kind of a sick joke is this?!" he roared, all his bottled up emotions spilling forth at once, "Why are you doing this?!"

They laughed darkly, once again dodging an attack from Skulker. "It's simple really."

They disappeared. Danny whipped around and let loose an ecto-blast that hit Chara in the center of their chest. They were thrown back into the wall. But they just grinned at him and disappeared again.

"I exist to erase this world." they continued from another point in the room.

"'Erase'?" Danny echoed.

"That's right whelp. This creature is a demon, created for the sole purpose of erasing other worlds. They've already slaughtered almost every ghost in the Ghost Zone!" Skulker exclaimed.

Chara giggled childishly. "That's right. _Almost_ every ghost."

It happened faster than either Danny or Skulker could react to. In a flash of red, Skulker's metal suit was split in half right down the middle by Chara's red attack. Both halves of the suit fell to the ground, the helmet spilling its contents of dust as it hit the floor.

"Hmm." Chara hummed, then they laughed, "I keep forgetting he's such a tiny ghost."

The temperature around them dropped and ice gathered around Danny's fists. Chara turned away from Skulker's remains and focused their glowing red eyes on him.

"Now that the riff raff is out of the way," they grinned. Chara lifted their knife and pointed the tip at the center of Danny's chest, "I'd say it's about time we had our fight."

Frost crawled across the floor where Danny's feet touched the dust coated wood.

"I couldn't agree more."

…

 **A/N: Okay….well...this is longer than I thought it would be. So it will be a two shot. Next part will come eventually.**

 **Valette :)**


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